F100 vs. F6

[SCL]

The F100 was my first venture into the Nikon world and it was a good camera, with many features beyond my grasp however. Years after selling it, having kept my Nikon lenses and used them on digital bodies, I decided to get another film body for them and couldn't find a decently priced F6, but did find an F5 at a good price. IMHO it represented the pinnacle of Nikon film bodies, but it was like carrying around a lead weight. Now the F5 (as I still don't see f6 bodies for sale very often) can often be foundfor around $400 USD, which IMHO represents a great value for its features. If I was given a choice today between a F100 and F5 or F6, I'd probably opt for the F100, on the weight factor alone, but recognize that too often the coverings have deteriorated and become "sticky", a disappointing issue which as I recall can only be temporarily corrected with an alcohol wipe, whereas the F5 never had this issue. In summary, both F100 and F5 or F6 are great cameras at much lower prices than a few years ago.

[ShunCheung]

On 3/23/2006 at 3:58 AM, ShunCheung said:

I have said this over and over, people buy F6's because they want one and can afford it. If you try to "justify" the price difference between the F6 and a used F100, which you can easily buy for $400 or so in these days, few would ever buy an F6.

Of course I have long forgotten what I wrote in March 2006, almost 17 years ago, but I remember the F100 was around $1000 when it was introduced in 1998. By 2002, a Nikon rep told me that the F100 was the best-selling Nikon SLR, ever. However, it was quickly eclipsed by the digital D70 in 2004, and the transition to digital was rapid. Nikon formally discontinued the F100, FM3a and a bunch of manual-focus lenses in 2006. By then the F100 was $400 used. Likewise, the transition from DSLRs to mirrorless (F to Z) is progressing much faster than I could imagine.

While we are on this topic, some may find the following article from yesterday interesting. A couple found some 2000 old film SLRs and lenses in a storage unit. We are talking about the likes of the Minolta SRT-101, which was my very first SLR in the 1970's. However, I am afraid that those film SLRs won't be worth much by now. It could have been a somewhat different story 20, 30 years ago: https://petapixel.com/2023/02/27/couple-finds-trove-of-2000-cameras-and-lenses-in-storage-unit/

[jose_angel]

I bet F6 owners can't help but smirk when they read articles comparing the F100 to the F6...

And also to the F5... the only F camera with a battery grip that cannot be detached. Wrong design... 😜

Edited February 28, 2023 by jose_angel

[Mary Doo]

1 hour ago, ShunCheung said:

While we are on this topic, some may find the following article from yesterday interesting. A couple found some 2000 old film SLRs and lenses in a storage unit. We are talking about the likes of the Minolta SRT-101, which was my very first SLR in the 1970's. However, I am afraid that those film SLRs won't be worth much by now. It could have been a somewhat different story 20, 30 years ago: https://petapixel.com/2023/02/27/couple-finds-trove-of-2000-cameras-and-lenses-in-storage-unit/

Sounds crazy but I can see how a passionate compulsive lover of cameras can end up with this trove over a number of years. 

[John Seaman]

2 hours ago, ShunCheung said:

I am afraid that those film SLRs won't be worth much by now.

You might be surprised how much some of these cameras, and particularly lenses, sell for if marketed properly online.

[ShunCheung]

37 minutes ago, John Seaman said:

You might be surprised how much some of these cameras, and particularly lenses, sell for if marketed properly online.

Well, if an old camera/lens was once used by Ansel Adams back in the 1960's, perhaps it can fetch a high value, one used by Shun Cheung, not so much. 😁  I know the old 28mm/f1.4 AF-D used to be worth a lot in the used market, before the AF-S version became available, but I am not up to date with those prices.

[ShunCheung]

1 hour ago, jose_angel said:

I bet F6 owners can't help but smirk when they read articles comparing the F100 to the F6...

And also to the F5... the only F camera with a battery grip that cannot be detached. Wrong design... 😜

The F5, F100, and F6 all use the same sensors. 😆

[SCL]

1 hour ago, ShunCheung said:

The F5, F100, and F6 all use the same sensors. 😆

😄

[glen_h]

https://collectiblend.com/Cameras/Nikon/Nikon-F-100.html

say $130 for the F-100, and

https://collectiblend.com/Cameras/Nikon/Nikon-F6.html

about $650 for the F6.

 

Maybe the best deal in film SLRs is the FTb:

https://collectiblend.com/Cameras/Canon/Canon-FTb-QL.html

which goes for about $15, and that is about what I got mine for,

though that was with the 50/1.8 lens.

[ShunCheung]

That article indicates that couple managed to sell an old Minolta 135mm f2 lens for $2340. I wonder who would pay so much for a mount that has long been out of production. It is not like there are a lot of Leica lenses in the mix. In any case, if they can make, on the average, $50 for each item sold, we are talking about some $100K. The main downside is that you need to make 2000 sales. That is a lot of effort and hassle, to put it mildly.

[Mary Doo]

It's a big headache.  No store would absorb so many units, and the selling process of so many items is tedious.  It's difficult even if they want to give them away to organizations that still teach film photography to HS students.  Hopefully the publicity it has now generated can help out.

[hjoseph7]

The F6 is regarded by Nikon as a full professional system camera. The F100 is regarded as a semi-pro camera with professional capabilities. The f6 is selling on ebay for $1000+ for a good copy, while the F100 is selling for about $400 max. There must be a reason for the $600 difference. The F6 provides full matrix metering with old manual lenses. Other than that I'm not sure what are the differences. I thought about all 3 cameras and opted for the F4. The F5 although cheaper than the F6 does not have a detacheable grip which turned me off. The outrageous low price for the f100 made me a little suspicious. 

[ben_hutcherson]

I'm glad I have an F6, but the F100 is 90% of the camera it is. I appreciate matrix with AI lenses(which the F4 also gives, but F6 has better modern compatibility). I never cared about iTTL on it until I went from an SB800 to SB900, which drops film TTL support.

If you want a film SLR to keep in your bag with mostly a DSLR kit, the F6 is the one to have if you use a modern flash also although again the F100 does most of the same thing(and if you don't mind using an SB800 you can still get good compatiblity with reasonably current DSLRs along with basically all of the 90s film SLRs and even the F3 with the right flash shoe). The one big thing, to me, that the F6 lacks is support for E lenses. I don't know if that could have been added with a firmware update or not, but if it could have it would have been a really nice addition especially as the F6 was in production along side E lenses. At least I can put my 24-70 f/2.8 on it and use it wide open.

The current prices of some film equipment are surprising, but then film is currently experiencing quite a renaissance. I suspect it may be a passing fad, but we will see. My pre-move local camera store use to have a few rolls of B&W and negative film kicking around, but now has shelves piled with film and they tell me it moves faster than it was moving in the 2005-2006 timeframe(when there was still a decent bit of pro film usage).

[rodeo_joe1]

6 hours ago, ben_hutcherson said:

but then film is currently experiencing quite a renaissance. I suspect it may be a passing fad, but we will see.

I certainly hope so for ecological reasons, but I suspect that almost as many people are quickly discovering how crap film is and giving up on it, as are being suckered into trying it for the first time by its Internet meme status. 

On 3/1/2023 at 7:20 AM, ShunCheung said:

I wonder who would pay so much for a mount that has long been out of production.

There's an old saying from the north of England - "There's nowt so queer as folk!" 

Translation - There's nothing as strange as people. 

[Niels - NHSN]

16 hours ago, rodeo_joe1 said:

I certainly hope so for ecological reasons, but I suspect that almost as many people are quickly discovering how crap film is and giving up on it, as are being suckered into trying it for the first time by its Internet meme status. 

There's an old saying from the north of England - "There's nowt so queer as folk!" 

Translation - There's nothing as strange as people. 

Hey Joe, are you a process or a result kind of person?

My photography sucks - please don't expect any great art from my hand, but I enjoy the hobby.
I hate sitting in front of my computer during my free time (except reading photo.net) - enough of that during my job - which leaves me with analogue if I am to maintain my interest in photography.
 

I think many analogue photographers are focusing on process.

Edited March 29, 2023 by Niels - NHSN

[Niels - NHSN]

In response to OP (back in 2006);

A Nikon F80 (N80) is very close to what any film photographer today would functionally need in a smaller package than the F100 or F6 - and at a MUCH lower price.

There are few Nikon lenses that won't work with the compact N/F80 - just avoid anything pre-AI and Bob's your Uncle.

 

[ShunCheung]

Back in its days, plenty of people didn’t like the N80’s viewfinder, which is the same as the one on my D100. Now in 2023, most film SLRs are cheap. I would op for an F100 unless you really want an F5 or F6.

Incidentally, I don’t think any Nikon film SLR can control the aperture on E lenses. If you use an E lens on a film body, expect to use it always wide open. Since the 2007 D3 and D300, all but three F-mount bodies can control E lenses, e.g. the D90.

[ben_hutcherson]

Funny enough and by pure coincidence, I was playing with my DCS 14/n earlier today. Much like the Finepix S3, the DCS 14/n is an N80 with a sensor and other stuff grafted onto the back of it. Unlike the D100 and Finepix, though, the DCS 14/n is actually a full frame camera so has the full N80 viewfinder.

The N80 on paper is a promising option(provided the back catch isn't broken) especially given that it has full AF-S and VR support(I think the rule of thumb on VR is that it works with any camera with 5 AF points or more). It's lightweight, which is good, but to me it's always been cheap and rattly feeling. It's quiet, which is also good, but to me also has sort of a tinny, cheap sound. There's an N80 sitting on the shelf in my office next to quite literally 100 different film bodies(at one point the only Nikon film SLR I was missing was the FM3a-I've since sold my F100 and my Nikkormat FS so now there are 3 I don't have) along with a couple of other cameras built around it.

Maybe I'm too use to using my D850, D5 F2SB, and F6 but using the DCS 14/n was sort of a miserable viewfinder experience. I kept playing with the diopter thinking it was set wrong, but it's really just that the finder isn't that crisp. It's dim and low magnification-basically it's everything bad about consumer-level SLRs despite the fact that in its day it was actually a relatively high end body.

@ShunCheung My comment about E lenses was that the F6 does not support them. Given that the firmware could be updated, though, I was always hopeful that Nikon would somehow or another add support for them. At least being stuck wide open, given how good a lot of E lenses are, isn't the end of the world. The F6(and F5) are smart enough too to be aware that they can't change the aperture so at least if you do put one on, the exposure will be correct. I've used my 24-70 f/2.8E on my F6.

[ShunCheung]

The very first E lenses were the three PC-E introduced in 2008, shortly after the introduction of the D3 and D300 in August 2007. Those two are compatible with E, but no F-mount body prior to those is. E didn't become popular until Nikon introduced the F-mount 800/5.6 in 2013 and then the 400/2.8 E ... following it.

Since the very last film SLR announced was the F6 in 2004, no film body can control the aperture in E lenses. Strangely, the D60, D90, and D3000 all introduced after the D3 also cannot control E lenses, but those three are all DX. In other words, all Nikon FX DSLRs, starting with the 2007 D3 (very first Nikon FX DSLR), can control E lenses. If that feature could be added via a firmware update, Nikon probably would have done so a long time ago. But then, stuck with a lens wide open is still much better than getting stuck in the minimum aperture.

[rodeo_joe1]

On 3/29/2023 at 3:51 PM, Niels - NHSN said:

Hey Joe, are you a process or a result kind of person?

Results definitely. Whatever works, and preferably most efficiently and economically. 

When film was all there was, I got sidetracked into the process. God, I wish I had that time back again to concentrate on the important stuff - like learning more about lighting, creating empathy with the subject, tips and tricks of composition, etc., etc. All stuff that digital shooting has now given me the time, instant feedback, and general freedom to work on improving. 

Stuff, incidentally you can learn about without touching a computer - except for the one embedded in the camera of course. 

The clue is in the name "photography", meaning drawing or writing with light. 

It's not called 'chemomicturation'. OK I just made that word up. I think it means p*ssing about with chemicals. 

Edited March 30, 2023 by rodeo_joe1

[mike_halliwell]

15 hours ago, rodeo_joe1 said:

digital shooting has now given me the time, instant feedback, and general freedom to work on improving. 

+1

Instant feedback flattens the learning curve like nothing else I know.

[ShunCheung]

5 hours ago, mike_halliwell said:

Instant feedback flattens the learning curve like nothing else I know.

Instant feedback is a major game changer.